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Warning To Those Who Don't Seek Veterinary Care for Sick Pigs

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Amanda1801 said:
I will come out of university and will be lucky to be earning 20k a year. The financial commitment of this (ignoring the social, mental and physical ones), I will owe in the region of two hundred thousand pounds.
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Sorry to be a pedant but if you did earn <20K a year you wouldnt have to pay a single penny of your student loan back. I wouldn't want anybody reading this to be put off going to Vet/medical school.
x
 
Hemmy said:
Sorry to be a pedant but if you did earn <20K a year you wouldnt have to pay a single penny of your student loan back. I wouldn't want anybody reading this to be put off going to Vet/medical school.
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You also don't have to pay stupid fees if you do it as a first degree mallethead

Graduate vet salary is £18-£20k
 
If I believed vets only get £20,000 a year I really am stupid. BTW, where’s all the money going to? If people pay £25 for consultations lasting about 15 minutes then surely vet practices are making a good profit. Yes they have their own bills to pay but even so.
 
You have to think about how many staff memebers are involved with your 15 minute appointment. Certian things used in a consultation are throw away, such as wipes for the table, or the thermometer. All the consultations I have involve the vet, and another person. Be it a vet nurse or a student, my consultations are never less than 20 minutes, my vet gives very good sound advice and isnt shy of saying "i need to go and research that i will call you tomorrow" i also have number free telephone contact with my vet regarding the care of my pets.

Out of what your paying for 15 minutes they are paying for a receptionist, a vet, and a vet nurses salary, as well as all the equipment used.
 
Well, as has been bought up in the past perhaps you need a new vet if you are unhappy with their service, as after all you are a paying customer and you have the right to take your buisness whereever you like. I tried 3 vets before settling on my current one, my current one is the most difficult to get to and the most expensive, but i would trust them with the life of my piggy.

I am off to bournemouth in a few weeks, so will be looking for a new vet - not looking forward to that!
 
lily 74 said:
I agree if you can't afford unexpected vet bills don't get a pet:(

Often we find it hard to find the money for the vets, we had hamster who had to be rushed to the emergency vets as he was very ill we phoned and they aid it would be £80:(

Or the said wait till the morning, and it would be £30. We went overdrawn as I couldn't see the hamster suffer overnight.
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I am a single mum with 3 kids, 7 piggies and 6 hamsters, When 2 of my hamsters took ill last year (on a saturday) i paid £120 each for them to see the emergency vet, Sadly Cwtch had to go to sleep as he had a tumor (something the vet i took him 2 the day before missed) and wee Wheelie died on the monday. I see all my animals as my children and i don't care what the cost is, their health and needs are equal with those of my human children. Nicola x
 
Sue_P said:
If I believed vets only get £20,000 a year I really am stupid. BTW, where’s all the money going to? If people pay £25 for consultations lasting about 15 minutes then surely vet practices are making a good profit. Yes they have their own bills to pay but even so.
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New grad vets earn between £18k -£32k a year depending on the area you work. London/citys are paid more, in wales the salary is lower (around 20k). It also depend on what species you treat ie smalls, large, exotics..
At the peak of a vets career they can earn between 40k-80k depending on where they work, any additional qualifications they have done (ortho/ soft tissue / exotics).
 
If you own your own practice, and have been working about 40 years, and if you're lucky enough to work in a wealthy area with a specialist certificates...
 
Not to mention the mental stress of owning and running your own practice and having to deal with all the drama between employees. My parents ran a business for almost 30 years and said it was like running a daycare sometimes.
 
I've found mostly the employees act like children and the bosses act like adults, but I have been very lucky in the places I have worked.

Back on topic, if you don't take your Guinea Pig to a vet when they are sick they will probably die and cost you lots and lots of money!
 
Twoflower said:
I have been very lucky in the places I have worked.
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I haven't.
risa-mano.gif
 
Sue_P said:
I haven't.
risa-mano.gif
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Sue, is there any point to your posts on this thread? Lets keep it on topic and keep it cool, please dont let it end the same way your own thread did. I think its ironic you are posting on this thread to be honest.
 
BTW, I find my first post on this thread rather ironic now.

Sue_P said:
I agree. Nowadays I couldn’t give two hoots what internet people think but I have in the past gone to rodent forums to ask for medical opinions and have been bullied in force by hysterical women and teenagers getting their knickers in a twist. I’ve been banned from forums because I haven’t taken my pets to the vets as demanded. Well my own judgment has done me ok so far, the rodents I have are still alive. They seem to have a lot of medical problems between them but if I’d rushed them to the vets with each thing every time I’ve been told to online, it’d have cost me a fortune and they’d both of had unnecessary treatment. Some of which they have had, I’ve taken them a few times to the vets when I felt a visit was necessary yet nothing I’ve ever been prescribed by a vet has solved the problems. I think each case should be taken individually and rodent-lovers shouldn’t be so harsh on people who come to forums looking for advice. Acting like school ground bullies is non constructive, members should feel welcome and not scared to post in fear of a cyber execution. Giving advice to tell someone a pet needs vet treatment is fine but admin should intervene if things get out of hand. I was getting told I could face a £20,000 fine and 51 week prison sentence on a forum once when I told them I wasn’t taking my rodents to the vets. Pretty funny. & even after I’d been lynched and banned I still didn’t take my rodents to the vet. They were fine. Some people are just hysterical.
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I would just like to make a couple of points that I don;t think have been made to date on this thread and may explain why sometimes people on the forum get frustrated when those asking for Health and Illness (or other) help ignore the advice given..sepcially abo7ut seeking cavy-savvy vet treament....

.......especially when those posters prefer to stick with their current vets rather than go to one recommended on here...or won;t see a vet because of cost...or just ignore advice and "do their own thing" with "home-help remedies"and then expect us to help them out when things go wrong...whatever time of day or night.

I'm feeling very raw and sad at the moment becase I have recently lost my two oldest guineas in quick suceession. Both to eye problems - both different problems entirely and in order to identify/diagnose/treat I have had to spend over a £1000 in vets bills at a very cavy-savvy vets. Unfortunately, because we were breaking new ground in guinea pig medicine (at my expense), we couldn;t act in sufficient time with the right meds to save my beloved Bandit and Maple who are now both popcorning at The Bridge.

I choose to give the benefit of my experience, £££££, and losses to help others on this forum so they won;t have to go through the stress, expense and devastation I have had to go through with my own piggies over the years.

To those of you who "dismiss" the help and advice offered from the very experienced people on here that you approach for help- you might like to consider how demotivating sad and even insuting it is when that advice (based upon personal experiences, finances and sad losses ) are so casually dismissed in such a manner.

There are some times I just feel like walking away from this forum...and today "would" be one of those times - were it not for the fact that two other forum guineas that were to be PTS are now recovering because their owners and vets have been prepared to heed other people's comments.

It's always nice to know that your own piggies didn;t go to The Bridge in vain if other piggies can be saved because people (and their vets) are willing to act on your own experience.

Finally, I want to make it clear that this post is not directed at just one indivdual - it is directed to everyone who posts on the forum asking for advice- be they experienced or inexperienced cavy owners.

If you are asking for help - it wouldn;t hurt to be a bit more respectful and heed the responses that you receive from those who have already "walked the walk" at their own expense and suffering/loss.

x
 
Pebble, I'm sorry you lost Maple & Bandit too, and i hope you never walk away from this forum as the advice and help you give is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi, for several months i have been looking in on this forum and thinking of joining but never got round to it. this thread and pebble, your post has finally given me the push i needed, so please dont leave

the importance of promtly taking guinea pigs to see a vet when they are unwell can not be stressed enough. i would like to share my own recent experience, sorry it is a bit long.

three weeks ago one of my gps, jimmy jazz, collapsed. he was limp, as if anaethetised and his whole body kept jerking and he was clearly in a lot of pain. i honestly thought he was dying, i could not bare to see him in that amount of pain and wait for him to "die in my arms" so rushed him to the vets with the expectation of having him pts, if he was not d.o.a. he was seen straight away as an emergency. the vet reassured me he was not on the point of death but agreed he was in pain and suggested giving him pain releif and keeping there for a few hours for observation. i agreed, his condition improved and i was able to take him home later that day.

i should mention that my vets here are very good but not especially cavy savvy, in fact the vet i saw does not normally deal with the piggies as he is allergic to them. however, being a highly skilled and experienced small animal vet he was still able to make the crrect decision not to pts my gp and to give him the emergency treatment he needed.

the following day i took my gp to the cavy savvy vet where i used to live who put him on a course of treatment, since then he has improved daily. for the first two days he was too uncoordinated to eat or drink without assistance, by day ten i was able to renunite him with his companion and today he is nearly back to normal apart from his slight head tilt.

had i denied him the veterinary care he needed my expectation of him dying would have become a self fullfillig phrophesie; the pain its self may have proved too much, he may have succumed to an untreated infection, and had i been a less experienced owner and not known how to nurse him through the first 48 hours, by not seeing a vet he would have died as a result of dehydration or bloat caused by gut stasis, while all the time suffering unnecessarily.

i have been open with my vets here about taking him to an other, have had his notes faxed over so they can benefit from reading what a cavy savvy vet thought and did and this week i took him back in so they could see how well he has improved.

fianally, even if all vets learnt about gps in vet school they still would not be that savvy on leaving as they would have the theory but no or little experience and it is experience that makes all the difference. a vet can only gain experience if people actually take their gps to see them in the first place. so please, for the sake of your piggies and the pigs of the future do the right thing.
 
Pound Shilling & Pig said:
Hi, for several months i have been looking in on this forum and thinking of joining but never got round to it. this thread and pebble, your post has finally given me the push i needed, so please dont leave

the importance of promtly taking guinea pigs to see a vet when they are unwell can not be stressed enough. i would like to share my own recent experience, sorry it is a bit long.

three weeks ago one of my gps, jimmy jazz, collapsed. he was limp, as if anaethetised and his whole body kept jerking and he was clearly in a lot of pain. i honestly thought he was dying, i could not bare to see him in that amount of pain and wait for him to "die in my arms" so rushed him to the vets with the expectation of having him pts, if he was not d.o.a. he was seen straight away as an emergency. the vet reassured me he was not on the point of death but agreed he was in pain and suggested giving him pain releif and keeping there for a few hours for observation. i agreed, his condition improved and i was able to take him home later that day.

i should mention that my vets here are very good but not especially cavy savvy, in fact the vet i saw does not normally deal with the piggies as he is allergic to them. however, being a highly skilled and experienced small animal vet he was still able to make the crrect decision not to pts my gp and to give him the emergency treatment he needed.

the following day i took my gp to the cavy savvy vet where i used to live who put him on a course of treatment, since then he has improved daily. for the first two days he was too uncoordinated to eat or drink without assistance, by day ten i was able to renunite him with his companion and today he is nearly back to normal apart from his slight head tilt.

had i denied him the veterinary care he needed my expectation of him dying would have become a self fullfillig phrophesie; the pain its self may have proved too much, he may have succumed to an untreated infection, and had i been a less experienced owner and not known how to nurse him through the first 48 hours, by not seeing a vet he would have died as a result of dehydration or bloat caused by gut stasis, while all the time suffering unnecessarily.

i have been open with my vets here about taking him to an other, have had his notes faxed over so they can benefit from reading what a cavy savvy vet thought and did and this week i took him back in so they could see how well he has improved.

fianally, even if all vets learnt about gps in vet school they still would not be that savvy on leaving as they would have the theory but no or little experience and it is experience that makes all the difference. a vet can only gain experience if people actually take their gps to see them in the first place. so please, for the sake of your piggies and the pigs of the future do the right thing.
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This is brilliant to hear - your piggy is clearly a very lucky boy.
x
 
To back up what has already been said regarding vet specialism, having worked on a goat farm for some years and having to call vets out for some things, we had a great relationship with the farm vets. We had vet students for a fortnight in their training to experience goat husbandry - just 2 weeks, and not every vet took the chance to learn about the niche husbandry of goats.

You may think like with guinea pigs that basic veterinary knowledge is sufficient to deal with any issues that may crop up during the time you have with your animals. Wrong, while the very basics can cover most issues, like mange mites, fungal, flystrike for guinea pigs, foot rot, scours, and pregnancy toxemia in goats, it is when the more serious conditions crop up that require a more indepth knowledge to not only know symptoms (a typical and non typical) and the correct way to treat these issues.

It was through my boss' and my own knowledge on goats and the best way to treat conditions - pasturella for instance only responded to high doses of engamyclin, listeriosis and johnes disease couldnt be treated and knowing the first symptoms was imperative to allow us to pts to prevent further suffering (and a painful death), we passed onto other budding vets to be, and the practice vets. They are not like cows or sheep, they are technically an exotic animal and knowledge is sparce, exactly the same as guinea pigs.

In accepting this I am prepared to take my pigs to a cavy savy vet should the need arise, I took flash to the out of hours service when he was suddenly ill, I also called on the experience of the forum members to help me treat what should have worked, but sadly I lost him a week later. I dont regret rushing him to the vets, I dont think anything more could have been done and know that it would not have waited till morning or when the vets were cheaper. There is no ifs and buts, no excuses when it comes to the welfare and health of our charges on this world, it is our job to seek medical help when they require it, and not to delay them getting the treatment they deserve - no argument, especially when it can cost the animal its life - that is a huge price they pay for lack of the help we could have given them.
 
Pebble I am so sorry you lost Maple and Bandit bless them xx Please don't ever leave the forum. You saved Mr Wu's life and me and hubby will be eternally grateful to you for your wonderful advice at such a critical time xx
 
i agree with each and every one of * ... i also love my piggies more than my life (nd i mean it)... but some time responsible and caring owners could also become helpless ...
people,i live in a small city of india ..where guinea pigs are still not commonly found or adapted pets ,,even most of the people here dont even know anything about guinea pigs .. and when * show them they call them "colourfull rats" ( huh!) ... even vets of here are not specialsed or knowlegeable about guinea pigs ..they jst call them "experiment material" and they have no idea about doses,diseases,toxic antibiotic ,treatment of guinea pigs ... ( i knw this is pathetic) ..
and the nearet exotic vet is about 600 km away from my city ( as m jst 19 ) i could not take my piggies to that far alone ....

see people ..what i feel is sometimes responsible and caring owner ,who loves thr pets more thn anything else has to take a decision by treating thr piggies by thr own (by searching on net about everythng) .. i knw most of * would nt agree with me .. but if * were in my sitution you guys would have understood it better... situation like mine ,,having little piggies,no vets to treat them an only make * HELPLESS... nd only option left with * is treating by urself and praying every moment for your piggies long life ....
 
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